Just as ours is shrinking. Looks like Aran is going to pass the "current" abilities of the US when it comes to space. Maybe they will end up outbidding Russia for putting US communication satellites in space.

Without orbiting the planet it doesn't really count (I know, the US did this too at first, and that didn't really count either) and is certainly not indicative of any long range missile availability. German V2 could do this (and did).

New Technology is the name we give to stuff that doesn't work yet. Douglas Adams

No they can't, that's exactly what I'm saying. The monkeys (and other animals) in V2s went straight up and straight down, just like this Iranian monkey. To go into orbit you need far more power, and a capsule that can sustain the reentry (unless you're doing a one way voyage).

New Technology is the name we give to stuff that doesn't work yet. Douglas Adams

Yes. Since the US had gained experience with V2s, the goal of Mercury was orbiting from the start, but the first flight was suborbital.

The first two Mercury flights with humans (Shepard and Grissom) were suborbital, and were launched on Redstones. The third and subsequent human Mercury flights (starting with Glenn) entered orbit, and were launched on the much larger Atlas.

In addition, there were four Mercury flights with other primates, one orbital on an Atlas (Enos, a chimp), and three suborbital: one on a Redstone (Ham, another chimp), and two rhesus macaques (Sam and Miss Sam) on Little Joes. Note that Enos' flight, MA-1, happened after Shepard and Grissom's, but before Glenn's.

Yes. Since the US had gained experience with V2s, the goal of Mercury was orbiting from the start, but the first flight was suborbital.

The Redstone rocket used for the first Mercury flights was actually a V2 on testosterone. After all it was designed by the same people.

These guys are pretty much on the way to launch a human on a suborbital flight (their current goal, but I´m sure once they have mastered the suborbital flights they will want to progress to orbital flights):www.copenhagensuborbitals.com
And everything is just financed from donations. In fact there are only two people working full time on the project and they earn a lot of their living expenses by giving lectures on space flight. The rest are all volunteers (though very highly qualified ones). They have already some homebuilt rocket engines delivering the power (the largest amateur built liquid fuel rocket engines), but they are still working on guidance and recovery equipment.
The whole project runs as open source project, so that anybody can copy their designs.
They say themselves that at the moment they are re-inventing NASA´s early 1960s designs.

Iran never claimed they did an orbital flight. They said they sent it "to space" not into orbit.

That rocket was way too small with engines that were not powerful enough to put a capsule/satellite into orbit. This was an experiment.

The monkey went flying suborbital up to some altitude and came back. They recooped the monkey, it was most probably dead but they got it back.

BBC News:
Iran says it has successfully sent a monkey into space.
The primate travelled in a Pishgam rocket, which reached an altitude of some 120km (75 miles) for a sub-orbital flight before "returning its shipment intact", the defence ministry said.
read more:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21230691

Press TV (Iran media channel)
Iran sends living creature into space
The Islamic Republic of Iran has sent a monkey into space aboard an indigenous bio-capsule as a prelude to sending humans into space.
The space capsule, code-named Pishgam (Pioneer), was launched on Monday on the auspicious birthday anniversary of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
read more:http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/01...-sends-living-creature-into-space/

Good thing they chose to send a monkey. They are not quite ready to send humans yet. It will be a long while before they do that. They say within the next five to eight years.

I like the comments. They really make it known that they don't like Saudis.
Pity they didn't send the Saudi king...and leave him there.
next time send a damn saudi instead of a poor monkey

and they don't like Wahabis either.
There are three groups of Zionists, the Jewish Zionists , the Christian Zionists , and the Muslim Zionists(the Wahabi's). Of the three, the last one is most dangerous to The Muslim world,for they are amongst us.

What most people don't realize is that North Korea is much more advanced than Iran. They can place satellites into orbit and they already have ICBMs with the nuclear warheads that go with them. Real danger should be looked at in the right place. Israel and the US should bomb NK and the Kims before they ever bomb Iran.

Quoting RussianJet (Reply 4):It's just that the more dangerous countries playing at such games is a little more of a concern I would say.

"More dangerous" than who? If you don't like Iran and their ideology, and I don't particularly, then let's admit we don't want people we don't like to have weapons technology. But let's not pretend the US, Israel, and other powers have ANY moral authority over Iran.

Quoting OzGlobal (Reply 16):let's not pretend the US, Israel, and other powers have ANY moral authority over Iran.

The US and Israel are the world's rulers. They are the ones who dictate what country is allowed to do what especially when it comes to nuclear power - civilian or military. They decide who is the "rogue" country.

Iran is now the rogue country so they have no right to nuclear power. North Korea are angels so they can have anything they like. No worries. The US and Israel are not going to go bomb North Korea even though they have multiple quantities of nuclear weapons with capable ICBMs to launch them and probably a spy satellite or two orbiting over our heads.

I don't hate either of these two countries, neither do I hate any other country in the world. Hating a country makes no sense. A country is an abstract entity it cannot be hated. Just a simple question of logic.

Individuals are a different story - the same goes with politicians/rulers/monarchs. There's good and bad of each everywhere and in every country.

Wow you are really going off the deep end. It may have something to do with the fact that NK already has nukes that makes dealing with them more difficult. They have sanctions just like Iran. Even without Iran having nukes we are not going to war with them, so what makes NK any different?

And hey, I'm mostly a non-interventionalist and disagree with a lot of our foreign policy, but come back from the extremes here. Just because we have a bunch of ICBMs doesn't mean we're gonna nuke the crap out of people we don't like

Quoting MadameConcorde (Reply 19):I don't hate either of these two countries, neither do I hate any other country in the world.

I had not read this post before responding in another. But I admit to a certain confusion when to comes to reading your posts. That is probably a good thing. It teaches me to not take things for granted or assume things. Thank you for that kind reminder.

However Madame, your messages are not always clear and are open to misinterpretation. (I know, I myself have been accused of unspeakable things. )

The potential threat is not determined by actual capability. It is determined by alignment. Pakistan having weapons has previously not been viewed as a threat and was provided with "assistance". India was and wasn't afforded the same consideration. Today's approach that may be viewed in another way.

Israel having weapons is not viewed as a threat but Syria having the same capability might be. The issue is never solely one of capability but one of potential hostile intent. Given that Israel is the largest beneficiary of US foreign aid (to which so many conservatives are supposedly opposed) we can safely assume that Israel is never, ever, not by a distant margin, ever perceivable as a threat to anyone. Even if Genghis Khan were to invade Israel they would never, ever in a millisecond, ever consider using nuclear weapons, which we all know they don't possess and have no desire of possessing. It must be true because they told us so. And I believe everything that I am told.

Quoting MadameConcorde (Reply 17):The US and Israel are not going to go bomb North Korea even though they have multiple quantities of nuclear weapons with capable ICBMs to launch them and probably a spy satellite or two orbiting over our heads.

That they already have those weapons is exactly how they became untouchable.